Happy New Year!

It has been quite sometime since I last updated my blog. Time has flown by since the summer with lots of new after school clubs getting underway and the excitement of Kate joining the team to help us expand further. I am now getting organised for the new term and I can’t wait to get cracking with our new topic of painting. Painting is the topic that nearly all children ask for and look forward to the most. I love it too as it allows for such freedom of expression and experimentation. (I’m not so keen on the cleaning up afterwards but I guess that’s a small price to pay!) I have become aware that there are very few opportunities in normal school time for children to paint. It seems that even when the paints are brought out the use of them is quite controlled, with a keen eye on the finished product rather than the process. To me, the joy of painting is all about the process, particularly with younger children who love to slap layer upon layer of paint down onto the paper until the paper eventually gives way. It is all about them seeing for themselves what happens when colours are mixed together even is the outcome is sometimes rather…brown. So with this in mind we will be having lots of experimental fun in our art clubs this term with the emphasis firmly on the experience. Ok, some of the paintings may end up looking rather abstract but what is hidden beneath those shapes and swirls will be layers and layers of learning and that is what we are all about. Now, where did I put those aprons…